List of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is an animated television series based on the My Little Pony toyline, created by American toy and game manufacturer Hasbro. It features characters and settings developed by Lauren Faust, who sought to create more in-depth characters than the stereotypical "girly" icons used in previous iterations of the franchise. The series began airing on October 10, 2010 in the United States on the Hub Network cable channel, which was re-branded as Discovery Family in October 2014. The show follows a studious unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in the town of Ponyville. Twilight becomes best friends with five other ponies: earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie,pegasus ponies Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and unicorn Rarity. Each represents a different facet of friendship, and Twilight discovers herself to be a key part of the magical artifacts, the Elements of Harmony. The six ponies—collectively known as the "Mane Six"—share adventures and help out other residents of Ponyville, while working out the troublesome moments in their own friendships, eventually leading to Twilight's ascension as a winged unicorn known as an alicorn. Several episodes focus on the exploits of Spike, Twilight's baby dragon assistant, and a younger trio of pony characters (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) who call themselves the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" and share their own adventures trying to discover their talents in life and receive their "cutie marks"—a central theme of the show—until the season five episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". The characters have been well received by critics, and are cited as one of the reasons the series' older fans, called "bronies", became attracted to the show. Several background characters have been popularized by fans as well, and are further incorporated as in-jokes within the show. The series later spawned numerous spin-off media, including a comic book and children's book series expanding some of the characters' roles, and a spin-off film series titled My Little Pony: Equestria Girls where several characters are re-envisioned as humans in a high school setting. Creation and conception Faust was initially hired by Hasbro to create a pitch bible for the show, allowing her to get additional help with conceptualization."Tekaramity" (September 15, 2011). "Exclusive Season 1 Retrospective Interview with Lauren Faust". Equestria Daily. Faust said she was "extremely skeptical" about taking the job at first because she had always found shows based on girls' toys to be boring and unrelatable.Faust, Lauren (December 24, 2010). "My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal". Ms. My Little Pony was one of her favorite childhood toys,Strike, Joe (July 5, 2011). "Of Ponies and Bronies". Animation World Network. but she was disappointed that her imagination at the time was nothing like the animated shows, in which the characters, according to Faust, had "endless tea parties, giggled over nothing and defeated villains by either sharing with them or crying". With the chance to work on My Little Pony, she hoped to prove that "cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness." To do this, she incorporated into the design of the characters and the show many elements that contradicted idealized stereotypes of girls, such as diverse personalities, the message that friends can be different and can get into arguments but still be friends, and the idea that girls shouldn't be limited by what others say they can or can't do. Elements of the characters' personalities and the show's settings were based on her own childhood imagination of the ponies' adventures, in part inspired by the animated shows that her brothers would watch while growing up, such as Transformers and G.I. Joe.Ohanesian, Liz (May 21, 2012). "Lauren Faust on Her Favorite Childhood Toy and Pitching Animated Shows for Girls". LA Weekly. Faust still aimed for the characters to be "relatable" characters, using stereotypical "icons of girliness" (such as the waif or the bookworm), as to broaden the appeal of the characters for the young female audience.Wilson, Melody (July 3, 2012). "Why do These Grown Men Love 'My Little Pony?'". Slate. Main characters Supporting characters Other featured characters References Category:Lists of characters